An Introduction to Silver from the Indian Sub-continent
by
Mary-Louise Wilkinson

Of all art forms traditionally associated with India, silver work is perhaps the least well recognised. When Wynyard Wilkinson began his study of silver produced in India for Europeans, most pieces were mistakenly traced to Scottish origins. Small wonder then that his ground-breaking study correctly identifying an entire body of silver wares as produced in India for the European expatriate community there caused such a stir in the silver collecting world when it was published in 1971. Wynyard’s publications have help establish Indian silver, in its colonial guise as well as in its indigenous aspect as art forms whose time has come. These are pieces, which fit comfortably in today’s multi cultural world, representing as they do a confluence of tastes and styles that is at once familiar and iconoclastic.

This is not the first time Indian silver has been presented to London society. In 1876, the Prince of Wales (who later became Kind Edward VII) brought back an array of silver from India that had been presented to him by the Maharajas and Princes of the Indian states. When these pieces went on display they caused such a sensation that soon English ladies from prim county parishes were proudly wearing jewellery and serving tea from tea sets adorned with Hindu deities in all their polytheistic glory.

There are two basic categories of Indian Silver made during the period of European influence, which lasted from roughly 1750 to 1950. The first of these is silver of essentially English form and design. Such pieces were first produced under the auspices of European jewellery houses which maintained premises in the three Presidency towns, Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, as a means of attracting retail customers. Although the primary source of revenue for these firms was the transferring of money to Europe through the movement of precious stones, the production of traditional silver pieces for the local European communities became an increasingly significant part of their business. The second category is silver which is European in form and function but which features decorative elements, which are distinctively Indian. These familiar items, tea sets, salts, peppers, cream jugs, etc., with exotic local decoration were produced to satisfy the European community’s demand for items that looked (to a European) the way Indian silver should. These pieces are also significant historically because they represent an effort on behalf of concerned Europeans as well as local hierarchies to establish a viable craft in a period when indigenous crafts were in jeopardy. The Prince of Wales’ aforementioned visit gave each princely state an occasion to produce a seminal example of its regional style of silver for presentation. Those few states without such a local idiom quickly developed one for the grand occasion and the results are silver pieces ranging from stately elegance to comic quaintness.

In addition to these two basic categories of silver are pieces in the English taste, which were designed to fulfil the specific needs of Anglo-Indian social life. These items include milk and butter coolers, obviously necessary in the intense heat; covered beakers, which kept insects from spoiling one’s libation; rice bowls, saucepans which transform themselves into serving dishes by means of detachable horn handles; and salts and peppers in a form that fit snugly in a servant’s sash, as everyone travelled with his own retainers and his own seasoning. As a certain Mrs. Fay observed in her Letters from India of 1780: “People here are mighty fond of grills and stews which they season themselves, and generally make very hot. The Burdwan stew takes a deal of time; it is composed of everything at table, fish, flesh, fowl.. many suppose that unless prepared in a silver saucepan it cannot be good.” Such silver items are our personal favourites as not only do they represent the complete synthesis of two divergent traditions, but they are also highly accessible an usable today. That they are the surviving artefacts of a vanished culture only adds to their allure.

If Indian silver gained instant cachet and respectability in England when the collection of pieces presented to the Prince of Wales toured the country in 1878-79, international acceptance was guaranteed when these treasures were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1878, which was attended by some 16 million people, including William Morris, John Millais, and Edward Burne-Jones, from all over the world. The Times reported of the Indian pavilion on 1st May 1878: “The Indian contribution is the best arranged exposition of the natural products, arts and manufactures of India that has ever been made, either in London or Paris.”

Suddenly, the Indian Style was in demand in places as far away as America, where Tiffany produced silver items in the “East Indian” taste. London shops struggled to keep up with the demand for Indian style goods. Liberty’s even included Indian silver in their Christmas catalogue, and Elkington, a major Birmingham manufacturer, produced exact copies of Indian style pieces.

There were five major and several minor centres of manufacture in India for this “hybrid” silver with Indian style decoration, each centre having developed its own type of decorative idiom. Kashmir, a tourist centre with its beautiful lakes and exquisite Mogul palaces and gardens, adapted Mogul motifs for its silver from its famous buildings and fabrics. Calcutta’s silver style features scenes from quotidian life in its surrounding villages. Madras silver is characterised by scenes from Hindu mythology and representation of gods. Silver from Lucknow, site of the British defence of the Residency during the Indian Rebellion of 1857-8, and another famous tourist destination, features either a dine decoration derived from coriander flowers, or scenes depicting the thrill of the hunt: with animals obscured in a forest of palm trees. Cutchi silver, which was probably the most successful commercially on an international scale, is encrusted with elegant scrolling foliage and often includes carefully articulated animals or birds. The magnificent silver of Cutch owes much of its popularity to one virtuoso silversmith: Oomersi Mawji whose grasp of the symbiosis of form and decoration, together with his superlative technique made his work internationally famous and enabled the other Cutchi silversmiths to successfully market their wares.

The silver displayed in this exhibition is a microcosm of the myriad and diverse shapes and forms of Indian silver.


Further Reading:

Vidya Dehejia, Delight in Design, Indian Silver for the Raj, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 2008

Wynyard Wilkinson, The makers of Indian colonial silver, a register of European goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, watchmakers and clockmakers in India and their marks 1760-1860, W. R. T. Wilkinson, London, 1987

Wynyard Wilkinson, Indian Silver 1858-1947, Silver from the Indian sub-continent and Burma made by local craftsmen in Western forms, Wynyard RT Wilkinson, London, 1999